The Los Angeles area was quite literally rocked by a 4.4 earthquake this past Monday morning, leaving many famous people (and non-famous people, but who cares about them) unwisely ducking for cover under their door frames. Among those rich and powerful was Kate Winslet.

In today's Tweet Beat, Courtney Love is good at trolling the internet for conspiracy theories, L'Wren Scott is remembered and an earthquake creates shockwaves that reverberate throughout Hollywood for much of the day.

At 6:25 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time, a magnitude 4.4 earthquake rattled the Los Angeles area. The first thing a lot of Hollywood stars did was post to Twitter.

Two dogs (not these two alarmed dachshunds) that were injured during a 2008 earthquake in China’s Sichuan province recently celebrated their nuptials, which culminated with the new couple being collared together in a single wreath as they gazed wildly at the grinning human faces around them. Did they know precisely…

A prominent cleric in Iran has warned his fellow countrymen that if there’s an earthquake a comin’, it’s probably because of women who wear “revealing” dresses, since, as geologists have known for years now, earthquakes are nothing more than the deep belly laughter of the Earth as she laughs in utter frustration at…

How badly did hip-hop celeb/liar Wyclef Jean fuck up his charity efforts in Haiti? So badly that the New York Times published a lengthy A-1 story that probably only skims the surface of his mismanaged, dysfunctional charity, Yéle. Wyclef, who was born in Haiti, founded Yéle in 2004, but it only had $37,000 in assets…

Researchers working on "the next big thing in disaster response" have figured out how to put a tiny backpack on a cockroach and then remote-control it through collapsed buildings to locate survivors. The roach can be equipped with a small video camera or a microphone, which can then transmit information to human…

Friends, it is with great sadness that I must report news of a most terrible tragedy. As you may have heard, a magnitude 6.0 earthquake hit Italy yesterday, north of Bologna. Already it has killed seven people and ruined many historic buildings, which is obviously awful. But now we're getting even more bad news: it's…

In this week's compilation of pop culture crap, Kathie Lee Gifford video bombs Kim Kardashian's wedding, child bride Courtney Stodden impresses Australia, and the earthquake was fun for everyone in New York.

You guys, animals are magic. They knew yesterday's earthquake was coming before any of the rest of us did. According to the Washington Post:

A series of earthquakes around the country today and yesterday shook places that don't usually get shook. There are a number of possible explanations for this. Here are the most plausible:

As if the devastation in Japan wasn't horrifying enough, in the U.S. we've been subjected to idiotic jokes about the disaster and wingnuts' ridiculous suggestions that the Japanese brought this on themselves. Since Rush Limbaugh is both an idiot and a wingnut, we aren't too surprised to find he's been laughing at the…

According to reports, the number of deaths resulting from yesterday's powerful earth quake and tidal wave is feared to have exceeded 1,700. Additionally, nearly 9,500 people from one town (more than half of its population) have been reported as missing, over 200 fires have flared up, thousands of buildings, homes, and…

Fuck 2010. This year fucking sucked.

An earthquake registering 7.2 on the Richter scale hit near New Zealand's second-largest city, Christchurch, early Saturday. Residents are reporting damage, power outages, and large aftershocks.

The chilling story of one woman's sexual assault in post-disaster Haiti is on the front page of The New York Times today. Unfortunately, the story's subject isn't alone.

Blogger Jen McCreight has proposed that, on April 26, women worldwide don their most immodest tops and see if they can move the earth through the power of exposed skin. Fight foolishness, and join the cause here. [BlagHag]

''Bringing food into a situation where people are desperate is always chaotic,'' says Chris Weber of World Vision, one of the organizations tasked with distributing the wave of donated supplies. Is handing aid over to women the answer?

This week, a cruise ship stopped in Labadee, Haiti, generating much-needed revenue for Haitians and fun for its passengers. Some call it ill-timed, others wonder why you can have more fun elsewhere if you really feel so bad. [NY Times]

This morning, a powerful aftershock hit Haiti 35 miles from the nation's capital. With a magnitude of 6.1, it was the most widely felt aftershock since January 12th. It does not appear to have caused any new damage. [NYT]